Page 21 of Healer Hunted

Wasn’t anyone but the Leaper’s crew watching this? How did Luka’s mother think she’d get away with this kind of treatment? Someone would talk! Wouldn’t they? “You’re not getting away with this, we’re free people. You have no right to detain us!” I told the Kertinal male in the lead. He was big, with arching, twisted horns sprouting from his forehead. His coloring was yellow and black, like a bristling hornet.

His bright yellow eyes reflected the light surrounding us, making them appear to glow. Malice filled his fang-filled expression as he looked me over, from the top of my blonde hair down to my feet peeking out from the oversized, rolled-up legs of the Leaper’s uniform that I wore. “You’re nothing but a slave, and soon you’ll be collared as you should be. I think I might have a few suggestions for Madam Nerizana as to how to put you to use. Especially that smart mouth of yours.”

We were loaded into a land transport vehicle, mostly a long, rectangular tube with hover capabilities. It was completely blacked out, and they tossed Luka inside it as if he was a sack of potatoes. I was hoisted in next, my skin crawling, my stomach rebelling, when the Kertinal pushed me forward roughly by a hand on my ass.

Soon, we were speeding away to destinies unknown. The Kertinal took great pleasure in pulling out a lace necklace. He dangled it in front of my face, yanking me upright by the lapel of my suit. “See, I got your pretty collar right here.” As he snapped it closed around my neck, I felt nauseated, sick at the sensation of that thing around my throat. I vomited all over his shoes, taking satisfaction in his horrified expression, and then his fist lashed out and I blacked out too.

Unlike Luka, I wasn’t out for long, which meant that damn asshole had held back. If he hadn’t, I probably would have a broken jaw now, but it still hurt like a freaking bitch. My jaw was pounding, my head was absolutely killing me and the situation hadn’t improved in any way. I rather wished I could go back to that moment where Luka and I just cuddled after we’d had mind-blowing sex.

I was sprawled on my belly, part of my hair stuck to the puddle of vomit right next to my head, the sour smell, the taste of it still coating my tongue. I could feel the heat of Luka’s big body next to mine on the ground, but I didn’t dare to move or I’d smear even more of the puke all over me. Around me, the guards were talking crudely about me. I could hear them evaluate my ass and my boobs. The Kertinal asshole was debating whether or not Luka had claimed all my holes yet, his boots were nudged into my side and with each bump of the vessel, he seemed to take great pleasure in knocking me in the ribs.

When we were making our next escape, I was going to stomp on this guy’s face. I was going to make them all pay, they were going to know what it was like to be this helpless. The familiar anger surging through me was welcome, I could sustain that, use it for strength. I didn’t need Luka to be strong, hell, maybe I needed to be strong for him. How about that?

We jolted to a halt, my body sliding along the metal floor of the vehicle. I thumped into Luka’s side, thankfully away from the puddle of sick. Soon I was dragged outside by my arms, stumbling along an uneven gravel drive in the direction of a huge, sprawling mansion of some kind. It was crafted from silvery stone, with great black pillars, and a brief glance showed stark modern landscaping with little to no color at all.

I caught sight of the guards hauling Luka out of the transport, dragging him along the gravel into a side entrance. I was shoved after him, forced to stumble, and dizzily try to keep up because my pounding head was making it hard to see straight. I caught a flash of Pato scampering off when someone swatted at him with a broom the moment we were pulled into the building. He screeched angrily once, then disappeared so quickly that the guards just shrugged.

To my dismay this is where we were split up, I was dragged down a dark corridor into the bowels of the huge mansion. Luka was taken up the stairs, carelessly hitting each step with his limp body. No, what would happen now? Was it all for nothing? Should we have gambled that I stay aboard the Leaper?

I was thrown into a tiny room, exactly the same kind as the one I’d shared with a bunkmate on Jihari. The door was slammed shut behind me with a definitive slam and I just wanted to crumple up and weep. I stumbled to my feet and located the sink for washing up with determination. My hands were still tied, and I had a slave collar on my neck once more, but I was not going to take this lying down. I’d start with washing up, then I’d figure out how I was going to rescue Luka.

Chapter 14

Luka

A doctor saw to my injuries after I’d been locked up in my old room in the Nerizana mansion. I was one big bruise from their manhandling, and my jaw had been dislocated, those were all easy fixes with a tissue regenerator. I was back to being my mother’s pretty boy in no time at all, yet they still wouldn’t let me out, and nobody was willing to give me any information on Noa.

I was going crazy from the not-knowing, pacing the room, and pounding on the door. I wasn’t just biding my time, like on Jihari, I wasn’t going to just make this easy for them. I’d already managed to break a window on three occasions, despite the increased security measures each time. I’d almost made it down onto the lawn once. I had required a dozen stitches, and several more rounds of treatments to fix up the jagged tear across my arm I’d caused another time when the glass shattered.

Their answer was always the same, a smug Kertinal whose name I never got to know declaring that I’d have to wait until Madam Nerizana returned. Any request about Noa was met with a smug grin, his emotional landscape filling with all kinds of perverted, sadistic feelings. I feared the absolute worst, that this bastard had laid hands on my Noa.

The Kertinal underestimated my ability to fight, I’d knocked him on his ass, and pounded his head into the hard wooden flooring. If not for the two other guards I would have killed that bastard then and there. As it was, they needed to stun me before they could finally pull me off him. After that, the asshole never entered my room without at least six more guards with him. It wasn’t helping my odds of escaping, but it sure felt validating to know that he was scared of me now. Thank you Sunder for being such a hard-ass when training.

On day five, my mother finally arrived, sweeping into my room in a cloud of perfume and expensive clothing. “What is wrong with you?” she demanded as soon as she saw me. “Why would you embarrass me like this? Can’t you just behave for once in your life!”

I stared at her as she continued to rage at me, her emotions truly that of a parent whose kid had just done something incredibly stupid. She couldn’t fathom that I didn’t want to do the horrible things she did. But my skin prickled, my body dropping from apathy at her arrival into a sudden rage when she said, “You and your gladiator friends ruined my animal breeding facility, that cost me so much money! You should have just taken your lesson at Drameil’s hands but no you’ve got to be stubborn.”

My mother’s accident had turned her into the vilest of monsters, she would abhor what she’d become if she had any shred left of her old self. Slavery, animal cruelty, in cahoots with Drameil enslaving me… Oh, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she was one of the twelve crimelords that governed the seedy layer of the Zeta Quadrant. No, at this point it was all but fact.

“I’m talking to you son!” she demanded when she realized I wasn’t listening to her angry rant. How could a woman this angry, this mean, look so beautiful still? How could she look just like the woman that had once lovingly sung me to sleep and kissed my hurts away? I struggled to reconcile the two images.

“You are not my mother,” I said to her. “You’re nothing but a viperous, evil bitch.” My words seemed to flip a switch in her. One moment she was still spitting mad, the next she turned calm and placid, almost gleeful.

“Very well,” she said, “Then you leave me no choice.” Her hand flicked towards the gloating Kertinal guard just inside the door, and he turned and opened the panel. Beyond it was Noa, laid out on a floating stretcher, her colorful skin on display in nothing but a thin white gown. She was out cold, so deeply out, that for a brief moment I feared she was dead. They had sedated her.

Greedily I took her in, searching her for any injuries or marks. There was the hated lace collar around her pale throat, a pain collar that would be used to keep her in check, or possibly to harm her if I didn’t do as my mother wanted. It was a more effective shackle than putting one around my own neck.

“What did you do to her?” I demanded, anxious at seeing her laid out like that, even if she did appear to be in good health. There were no markings on her, no obvious injuries. She didn’t look thin yet, and there were no shadows beneath her eyes. Had they kept her sedated like this all this time? Was that why I hadn’t been able to sense her no matter how hard I tried? And I tried, tried filtering emotional profiles so hard, that I feared my head would explode.

“Nothing yet,” my mother drawled. “Though I’ve had plenty of interesting suggestions,” she said, and her eyes flicked to the sadistic Kertinal. My blood froze in my veins, though I felt relief at the admission that the bastard hadn’t touched her, yet.

“Here’s how it’s going to be,” she said, and then she listed her demands. I could only agree with them with a sick feeling in my stomach. Anything to keep Noa from harm.

*

Noa

I had lost time, a lot of it, because my head no longer hurt. My jaw had healed while I’d been out, and my clothing changed. I shivered at the thought of some stranger touching my body while I’d been completely vulnerable. My last memory was of the small room, the Rummicaron guard that had unlocked my cuffs, and brought me a meal.